In the Shadow of the DNC, Organizers Call for a Unionized South

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As the Democratic National Convention arrives in North Carolina, labor activists gathered to discuss how to organize the South.
Bryan G. Pfeifer/Tumblr

The changeable letter board outside Charlotte, North Carolina’s Wedgewood Baptist Church, just a few miles south of where the Democratic National Convention will be held, read, “Yes, a liberal church.” But the meeting going on inside yesterday, sheltered from the sweltering heat, was somewhat further left-wing than the board suggested.

The thunderous baritone of Saladin Muhammad, coordinator of Southern International Worker Justice, enjoined the assembled congregants to start “a transformative movement that seeks to reorganize the economic, social and political relationships that determine the value of labor, the distribution of the wealth created by the labor, and the lives of people and helps to create sustainability.”

Organized under the banner Southern Workers Assembly, the group seeks to begin a wide-scale effort to organize labor in the South, the region of the United States most hostile to the efforts Muhammad described. So-called "right-to-work” laws, in place all over the American South, hamstring workers attempting to unionize and assert collective bargaining rights, and draconian laws implemented to intimidate and deport undocumented immigrants create an even more precarious class of workers whose labor can be exploited for profit more easily.

A common theme from different speakers held that this situation is not the product solely of recent developments, but rather the result of groundwork lain over decades. Ashaki Binta, a field organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), gave the assembly the lay of the land, touching on the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibited many types of strikes and gave the White House broad authority to intervene in labor disputes, “to prevent the power of labor from being exercised.” The shift of the textile industry into Southern labor markets benefited capital greatly, Binta noted, by way of the obstacles to union strength thrown up by Taft-Hartley. That same legislation also meant the end of Operation Dixie, the previous attempt by radical trade unionists to organize the south.

Binta also pointed out that the South is the U.S.’s epicenter of foreign direct investment. Municipalities and states throughout the region have attracted foreign capital by guaranteeing a docile, unorganized labor force and a minimal corporate taxation regime, The result, Binta said, is that foreign companies are not "paying taxes, they’re not supporting the local environment, they just take out, take out, take out” the wealth generated by the southern manufacturing economy.

Justin Flores, an organizer with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, broadened the picture to include undocumented immigrant laborers. Free trade agreements in the booming economy of the 1990’s, Flores noted, “devastated the agricultural economy of Mexico and other countries,” stimulating Latin immigration to the United States. Now, with the economic downturn, those immigrants have become subject to what Flores hoped won’t be thought of as anti-immigrant laws but rather anti-worker laws. Instead of deporting undocumented workers, the solution lies in organizing them, Flores said, who added that the question “Which side are you on?” is more important than "Which country are you from?"

All of the speakers agreed that the road to a unionized American South will not be easy. But the answer is radical determination, Muhammad maintained.

“In this climate of crisis, workers feel isolated,” Muhammad said, “This is why we need more than a one-shop-at-a-time organizing strategy. We need a social movement in order for the working class to feel empowered and united.”

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Organizing the white working class in the South has always been problematic.Few organizers take into account that the culture down here is very different than in other parts of the country.Too often methods are applied that have been effective in other parts of the country but are marginal down here.I stongly recomend folks read BORN FIGHTING by Jim Webb.I don't agree with his overall view of the Vietnam War I strongly agree with his reasoning of why so many of the people in the armed services are from the South with a very strong contingent of people of Scots-Irish ancestory.Too often leftist denigrate these folks as racist ignorant hillbillies ignoring the fact of thier class status and economic conditions which are comparative to Black and Latino workers.Northern Liberals are particularily obnoxious about labeling them as backward in racial attitudes and deficent in intellectual abilities which just infuriates them and makes many willing participants in policies that are counter to thier class intrest.Racism is a National problem not just a Southern problem and any attempt to push the negative consequences of racism on Southern Whites is seen as disingenuous self serving liberal guilt that seeks to transfer all liability to thier ranks.The Scot-Irish strongly resent any outside authority dictating behavior or compliance due to a fierce sense of individualism and egalitarism but if an idea can be expressed to them that they accept from the bottom up they will follow leadership to hell and back.This can be seen in the Union struggles in Appalachia in the coal mines.The largest domestic uprising since the civil war,Matewan came from this region.Leadership has to be earned and is not freely given but once commited it can be a powerfull force and it behooves the labor movement to understand it and to work with it.

B. since no need for campaign funds BAN all government employees accepting anything with a financial value. Present or future promises. This closes K Street Bribery

Progressive Flat Tax by group---14,00 income and we should bepaying our way and paying down the debt. We can do it with higher tax rate for top.We did it 1945-1980 by Taxing wealth. Sad but true today top 50% get 87% + of individual income and pay 13.5% tax Rate. It took a Tax Rate of 32% on Top 50% to balance our budget. It would require a change from (Top 1% paying 23%); (Top 10% paying 19%); and (top 25% paying 15%). The top 2% own 50% of wealth and took 30% of income.Redistribute Wealth and fast.HOW--- by Flat Tax by group---tax income to pay our way---we have done it before.

Posted by clarenceswinney on 2012-09-04 11:49:59

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